Remnants of a Fairytale
by xXxMirokuisMinexXx
Summary: Retribution was all that kept her life flame burning. When he found and ressurected her dead body from a battlefield for answers he didn't realize the changes he had set into motion. Did you know Sesshomaru I used to love Fairytales, she said quietly.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: I began writing this once in my life when I was dealing with some depressional issues, and I am happy to say that is no longer the case. Still I really do have a soft spot for it, because it deals with real themes of depression even if I can't say that I experienced the exact same circumstances. At first I was going to make this one chapter, but I've decided not to. No telling how long it will be. For this story there is an actual plot, but I have no clue how far I will stretch it. So to wrap this author's ramble up I must say this is a bit angsty and if you are looking for a cheerful story this really isn't it.

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**Remnants of a Fairytale**

**By: xXxMirokuisMinexXx**

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A lone man stood on the side of a grassy hill, the sun just rising to kiss the sky, as his blank gaze fell on a polished rock, with weeds sprouting up around it. Almost completely taking it over, threatening to smother it.

_It seemed like just yesterday,_ he bemused to himself while running a hand through his long silken hair, _but it was so long ago._

It was so strange that out of everything in his life, she was the most vivid memory, no matter how old.

_A radiant spark, in a world of dark, _his lips twisted into a sad sort of smile, _though that flame wavered and almost went out more than once._

He sighed, _Once Upon a Time, _he mused to himself, _there was a lost priestess_.

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply the scent of the forest. It was probably some of the last of it not yet torn down and settled.

_What will happen, _he looked down at the centuries old stone, _what will happen to you when this haven is settled? Will you be paved over, with out remorse?_ His brow creased in contemplation. _What will happen to the memory of you, miko? Kagome the broken priestess. _

He opened his eyes as he thought back to his first significant memory he had of the miko.

* * *

The ground was damp beneath his feet. He could hear the squish of his shoes pressing down into the sodden earth. The ground soaked with a shower of blood. Some of which was fairly familiar to him.

He scanned the area with his eyes. Hundreds upon hundreds of dead youkai corpses lay about it, their scent already rank from baking in a full days sun. He subconsciously wrinkled his nose up in disgust. Flies buzzed around noisily, landing on all the different corpses, worms probably already feasted on the quickly decaying flesh.

But none of these demons where his concern. They weren't what he was looking for.

He walked through the sea of dead bodies, stopping momentarily to gaze down at the dead body of a demoness, face first into the dirt. She was the first female he had come across while mulling through the corpses.

He felt as if he was becoming a necrophiliac. He subconsciously wrinkled his nose up at this idea.

He leaned closer to examine her, noting the arrow protruding from her back, reeling back suddenly, not only from the scent of death, but the rancor stench of Naraku. He glared down at the body, kicking it in the side to flip it over.

Empty crimson orbs stared blankly up at him, from a paler than appropriate face.

He contemplated over the smell of the woman, as he watched a roach crawl from her gaping mouth.

He couldn't help but wonder what her connection was to Naraku. He mentally shook himself. _This is not why I am here._

He turned from her body and continued walking through the sea of death, stopping every now and then to kick over a body and examine it closer.

"I know I smell it." He said in frustration, "I know I smell Inu Yasha's blood." He felt there was no way his acute nose could be mistaken.

He continued to walk gracefully through the slaughter yard, stepping smoothly over dead bodies, he showed no remorse. He had business to see too. This was business. His eyes took another look over of the area, noticing something off to the side of it, he began pacing towards the before mentioned it, now discerning it as a crater in the earths surface.

He peered into it curiously, bending forward picking up some of the soil and holding it to his nose. The scent was so faint but he was sure…

_Inu Yasha._

He dropped the dirt, stood, stepped back, and looked dumbly into the crater. The scent had been so faint and then it just disappeared.

_This gets me no where. I still know nothing._ He sighed and looked about the area from where he now stood, about to make his leave into the forest, when he saw an appendage poking out from behind a nearby boulder.

_This is all such an aggravation._ He thought dully to himself as he walked around the boulder to look at the body that lay there.

He surveyed his brother's wench. It took him a good few minutes to recognize her. It had been so long since he had last encountered his brother and his little bevy, and the girl, had changed considerably. He looked at her almost nude form, what he guessed used to be a furisube, hung from her body in shreds. He could not discern its original color. It was too stained with the dark red of her dried blood. Like the demoness of before, an arrow protruded from her chest, but what he found more peculiar, was that in her hands a bow lay, while an empty quiver was just a few feet off.

_Surely she didn't shoot herself?_

She smelled of salt along with the scent of her blood, and upon closer examination he could plainly see the tear streaks running down her face. He noted her scent wasn't as rank as every other creatures' in the immediate area. _She is either alive, or lived longer than the rest._

He kicked her experimentally in the side, before focusing in on her form with his ears. He heard no heartbeat. _So she is dead. Pity. She could've told me what happened to the half-breed._ He felt no remorse, and there was not a string in his heart pulled, as he turned fully intent on leaving her body there to rot, however there was a pulse at his waste.

Abashed golden eyes looked down at the sword on his hip.

"Tenseaiga?" He questioned cryptically.

It pulsed again, stronger this time. It tugged at his hip towards the girl. He turned, slightly following the swords direction.

"What is the meaning of this? You can't really expect me to resurrect the wench." He looked at it accusingly.

In response the sword only pulsed stronger and faster.

The sound of metal grating metal was heard, as he drew the sword from its' sheath. He looked at the cool, glossy surface of the sword and then to the girl.

"I don't agree with this," His eyes lingered on her body, limbs sprawled out at impossible angles, the arrow protruding ugly from her chest.

_But if I resurrect the filth, I can ask of the hanyou, and when I am done I can kill her again._

He nodded his head in his decision; he leaned forward to first pluck the arrow from her chest, before straightening himself, and swiping the long blade across the limp body.

He watched in awe as the gremlins of the underworld disintegrated in front of his eyes.

The only other time he had ever witnessed this, was with Rin. _Rin, _he sighed mentally. It had been a few months now since he had sent her off to live with a human family residing in a village in his territory. She had grown too old, and he had decided it was best for her to be around mortals, so she could live a normal life…

He found it annoyed him to no end, that he missed the girl.

But that wasn't pertent at the moment. The girl before him was stirring.

"Why?" Her coarse voice flew to his ears in a grating sound.

He stared stolid down at her, as eyes fluttered open to stare at him.

"Why?"

He continued to stare blankly at her.

"Why Sesshomaru?"

He growled, she was starting to aggravate him and she had been alive for only a matter of seconds.

"Why what, wench?" Sesshomaru ground out at her, his eyes slanted into slits at her.

"Why!"

_Well that narrows it down a lot. _He mentally rolled his eyes.

"It'd be wise wench for you to calm yourself," He stood straighter and looked down at her with indifference.

She openly guffawed at him, rolling her cerulean eyes as she stood herself up.

He could hear every bone in her body pop and protest.

"That is not wise wench," He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Indeed," She spoke evenly to him.

_Well, this was unexpected… _He though stupidly to himself.

He was amazed by the girls' reaction to everything thus far. She had not cried she had not broken down; she hadn't gone to covering herself upon realizing her clothes were just random stitches on her flesh, hadn't lain on the ground and wallowed in self-pity, though in her cerulean orbs he could see the loss.

He stared at her eyes studying them closer. They weren't as open as they had been a few years back. They weren't as innocent. He had the impression they had born witness to too many things to be innocent any longer.

Sesshomaru watched as Kagome limped to the crater.

"Wench what happened to my brother," He raised an eyebrow at her back.

"Gone,"

"You are vague. Elaborate, now." He growled out at her.

She looked at him over her shoulder.

"Or what Sesshomaru? You will send me back to my death?" He grimaced in his mind. _That was not the reaction I expected._

He opened his mouth to further threaten her when she cut him off, "He descended into hell," She motioned with her hand to the crater, "with Kikyou." He watched her eyes fall to the ground again as they took on a far off look.

He cursed the idiot Halfling. _At least the family blemish is gone._

Then he was struck by something.

_No Tetsusaiga? No tears?_

"Does this not bother you?" He truly was curious.

She gave him a sad smile, if you could call it that. "I knew it would happen. I just never expected it to be so soon." She sat down on the grass. "He told me about a month ago that he chose Kikyou," She sighed and looked up at the taiyoukai. "Did you know Sesshomaru that I come from the future?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her she had gone insane under all the stress of the death of his brother.

"Oh don't believe me if you don't want to," She leaned back on her palms looking up at the sky, "But it's true. Five hundred years roughly. Didn't you ever wonder about my odd clothes I used to wear? It's because they are from the future," She said it all so matter of factly that he only slighted believed it.

"Then why don't you wear that garb anymore wench?" He asked motioning to her 'clothes'. He was finding it quite disturbing that she wasn't trying to cover her current state of undress.

Her eyes flashed darkly. "I travel through a well. That very same well was destroyed."

He nodded satisfied with the answer about to ask her something else when she cut him off.

"Inu Yasha destroyed it when he told me he chose Kikyou over me. I suppose he was scared. Scared I would leave in rage and never come back. I have a family on the other side of that well," She stretched her body out a bit more across the grass looking up at Sesshomaru.

"You know I used to think that, too really live you had to give up your life," deep eyes turned up to gaze at him, "but I know now that, that's not true. People live for themselves. Too often with only themselves in mind."

_What the Devil is a matter with the woman?_

He looked down at her solemnly already slowing flexing his claws to take off her head, with that mouth that refused to stop flapping.

She sat up, timidly placing her palms into the dirt to prop herself up, "We are selfish." Her eyes turned toward the sky.

She was confusing the hell out of him. She had just returned from death and now was speaking to him in such a manner. Where was the depression? Anything! Even the naïve girl she had been would be better expected than this.

"We; me, Inu Yasha, Kikyou, Miroku, Sango, you," her somber eyes drifted up to his, "We. Everyone." Her eyes returned to gazing into the brilliant blue sky. Like she was searching it for some answer.

After a moment she breathed out and pushed herself up, with obvious strain, limping past him as she retrieved her bow, quiver, and then kept walking forward into the thicket of trees.

Sesshomaru raised a quizzical eyebrow at her back. She was so different now, yet still so painfully the same.

"Where are you going wench?" He asked almost amused, as she continued walking not even glancing back to acknowledge him.

"To kill Naraku," She kept her head held high as she continued limping.

_There is no doubt now, _he thought to himself, _she has lost whatever there was of her sanity._

"Do you think this wise in your current state?"

"No," The reply was smooth, breviloquent, and held no fear, it was actually frightening. He watched as she continued limping into the forest, until his ears picked up a light groan before she came collapsing to the earth.

Sesshomaru stared at her heaped up form for a moment, before turning on his heel and began walking away, when a slow pulse started. Immediately accusing eyes were sent to his sword Tenseiga…

He stopped in his tracks, it wasn't his sword. His brows drew together in wrinkles, at his confusion.

_If it is not the sword then what?_ He looked over his shoulder at the girl.

_It is the least I could do,_ he sighed at his lack of luck, _seeing as my brother is dead, and there is no care giver present for the girl. _He took even steps up to her body before roughly picking her up and tossing her over his shoulder, and departing for the Western Lands.

* * *

_Who knew I had a conscious _he kneeled down to look evenly at the stone, his nose wrinkling in disgust at all the weeds.

* * *

"How is it your chosen weapon, are arrows, yet the was how you fell to death," Sesshomaru watched her as she tried her new crutch for the first time, gently placing her bandaged leg to the hard floor beside her bed she resided in, while inside his castle.

She seemed to be ignoring him, fretting her bottom lip in concentration, "Because Kikyou, my incarnation, shot me down, and as I died she pulled Inu Yasha into Hell with her," She was stoic. The pain she held, the pain that none of the healers could see or mend.

In her last moments of life, she had been forced to watch her first love be drug into Hell, by her clay pot incarnation.

"Oh well, though. What's done is done." She meekly smiled up at him as she gained her balance beside the bed. "Is it not?"

"Indeed, it would seem," Though he highly doubted she felt what she said.

* * *

He stood back up shaking his head. _That is not acceptable._ He began pulling at the aggravating weeds as he thought back at the girl.

* * *

"You know Sesshomaru," She stared out at the horizon, from her comfortable sitting position on the grassy hill, beneath a red Japanese maple, "I used to love fairytales when I was younger."

Sesshomaru looked at her from the corner of his eyes. Her body reclining back on her elbows, her broken leg sticking out from her furisube wrapped in many cloths, and two firm pieces of wood on either side. For the life of him, he couldn't understand why he let her stay; when she had collapsed back in the forest he had had every intention of leaving her for worm food. _Her conversation, _he decided after a moment's deliberation. She said some of the most remarkable things. Au courant, brilliant things that someone her age shouldn't have lived through yet. _Or maybe you pity her existence. There is nothing left for her. _He came to the conclusion that that was a very plausible reason.

"All those Once upon a time's, it was all so magical and romantic," She rotated her good ankle around as she watched the sunset, "but it's much different when you live it," she looked down at her hand at her side, "and when the ending is never really known."

_Only a few weeks,_ he thought to himself, _I've really known her, but a few weeks, and yet I know her so well you'd think it'd been years._ He recalled how when he'd brought an unconscious human woman, barely dressed, into his palace gates, how the gossip had flown, and then thrice when discovered she was also a miko.

"All fairytales are supposed to have a happy ending," She smiled up at him. A smile put to shame by what it used to be. "That's the magic and beauty of them, right?"

"I suppose," He spoke quietly to her.

"Do you think this one will?" She sounded like she knew the answer as is.

"Quite possibly, I suppose." Sesshomaru turned his head too look down into her face.

"Hm," Was all she said as she looked yet again out at the horizon.

"Why is it, miko, that you still mourn your loses?" He questioned stolidly. "But you do not weep?"

Kagome smiled a small sad smile at him, "How can I cry when there are no tears left?" She sighed, "What is the point of crying, when you know no matter how many tears you shed that can't bring them back to you?"

"Them? You mean the rest of your bevy, too?" She had only told him little things about the whereabouts of the rest of the group never enough to really piece together into a story. "And why pretend to smile, when you have no joy left?"

In a moment even the fake smile fell.

"Because tears would be for me, and my smile is for those whom surround me. I don't want pity, the best way to avoid that is for people to believe I am happy." Her eyes were level with his, deep with what she had learned over years, deep with sorrows unknown to most, deep with passion felt, deep with hopes and dreams so harshly crushed. Deep with afflictions unspoken.

His amber orbs stared blankly down at her, as he realized all of this. All of what she was. All of what was unknown to him. Pain. Life. Love.

"Once upon a time there was a life loving monk," She started calmly taking a deep breathe, always a sign to him that she was about to recall something, as she turned her face to the sky, "He was cursed with a wind tunnel in his right hand. A curse passed on from his Grandfather, due to the malice of Naraku. Too the world he was known as the lecherous monk, with amazing spiritual power, and the amazing blessing of a life absorbing hole in his hand. Too his friends, he was known as the monk madly in love with a demon slayer, though he never really admitted it, whom would lie about some evil spirit to get us a good place to sleep, who loved to laugh even though he was constantly troubled, and who carried the burden of the life taking hole in his hand, one that would eventually take his own.

" And this is of course his tragic flaw, how we come to the ending of the story known as Miroku; One day while I was gone off to the future, the group had just returned to the village on a bogus shard rumor. It was an average evening for the rag-tag group, full of bickering, perverted antics, and punches. When suddenly Miroku stood," She recalled the events as Sango had told her through bursts of sobs the next night. _"Kagome! I never said it back! I never said…"_ She refocused her mind to the story she was telling, "And left the camp in a hurry. The demon slayer jumped up to follow her secret love in worry, worry that he was off to propose to some other woman, when she happened upon him in a clearing kneeled, holding his accursed hand, and chanting.

'_Houshi-sama?'_

'_Leave Sango, now!'_

'_But wh-' _She made a move towards him.

'_Damn it Sango I said leave!' _He turned too look at her blurry eyed over his shoulder.

She gasped as realization hit her_, 'No Miroku I can't!'_

'_You have to! Now damn it!' _He screamed at her in aguish as the wind in the area started to pick up._ 'Sango, now…' _His tears began to fall harder as he begged his only love to leave and let him die.

'_Miroku,' _She took involuntary steps back in her shock of the raw emotion in his voice.

'_Promise me,'_ He bit his lip in a sudden spout of pain as the rip became larger in his hand. _'Promise me as my last wish, that you will not allow yourself to be sucked in.' _

She nodded at him tears pouring down her face as she began to turn away, she could not bare the sight of her love being drug into his palm.

'_And Sango,'_ She turned back to him the shock apparent on her face at being called back. _'I love you,'_ He smiled at her brilliantly throughout all the pain. Those were the last words ever heard from the monk known as Miroku, as he was sucked into his cursed palm the very next moment."

Kagome let out a breath at the obvious effort she had put into declaiming her tale.

"No happy ending?" Sesshomaru spoke smoothly.

"In a way, yes there was," the answer shocked Sesshomaru as his head whirled for him to look at the girl who was now forcing herself up into a standing position. "For the first time in his life he let the world know how the real Miroku was, how he felt, and what better way for one to die then as their true selves, and in love?"

"What of the others?" He asked as he eyed her warily as she stood above him, balancing on her one good leg while stretching.

She took up her wooden staff, which served as a crutch. "Another day for those Fairytales, Sesshomaru." She began hobbling off smiling that sad smile back at him, "Well are you coming lazy?"

"You are a peculiar wench," He said to himself as he stood easily walking beside her.

* * *

He smiled proud of himself, down at the weed free polished rock. _It's the least I can do, after everything that you gave._

He sighed sitting down in front of it, legs crossed, his head resting in his palm. _I wish you were here to tell me one of your fairytales. One of your deep insights. _

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"Why is it woman, that even though you carry such a large burden, that you do not allow your shoulders to droop with the weight?"

"Because Sesshomaru," her face upturned to his, "if that burden wasn't there I wouldn't be who I am today," she hobbled up in front of him, just a day off of her crutch and already pushing the leg, "plus there is always someone who has it worse than I do," she was a few good feet in front of him, as she cast a solemn smile, "besides if not for all of that, you, Demon Lord of The Moonlit Lands, and I, Kagome Higurashi, of the Future, wouldn't be taking a walk through the forest."

He waited until her back was fully too him before he let the tiniest of grins grace his face.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Notes: I don't really have anything to say proceeding this chapter except, wow only two reviews? Talk about sad. Oh well.

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**Remnants of a Fairytale**

**By: xXxMirokuisMinexXx**

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"You were some human," _Most humans would've cried in self-pity, but you took the little good that came from it._ He titled his head in his palm, as he thought back on the first instant that he had ever really smiled, besides his childhood. _My turning point. _He rolled his eyes at himself. _Actually, I suppose my turning point was the moment I met the woman._ It was so odd, as he sat there and thought back on it. He had never felt different then, never felt the slow change taking place, but maybe that was her own magic. Her magic to change things, and make them sorrowfully beautiful, with words or with her soul.

* * *

He walked down the winding corridors of his palace, out into the dimming sunlight. He seemed to glide past one side of the white stone walls, passing his guards on the way. 

_Where is the insufferable woman?_

He heard light humming coming from deep inside the stalks of flowers. His ears pricked slightly as he followed the delicate and very feminine sound.

She was leaned over a large red hibiscus inspecting the petals carefully, dressed in a deep blue furisube, the long and elegant sleeves brushing the ground. Designs of cranes danced across the hems of the garment, as a lighter blue obi was tied about her waist.

Her eyes were glazed over, so it seemed she was recalling things in her mind, rather than actually scrutinizing the vibrant bloom.

He just stood there and watched her. He almost felt guilty at beholding the sight. Like watching something to Holy and perfect for his eyes, even though he knew that she was far from perfection.

_Not completely true. ,_ he thought to himself. She held her own perfection, and it was stunning. Something he couldn't grasp, it would always slip between his claws.

For one of the first times, since childhood, he felt inadequate. There was no way this creature before him was meant for Earth, and the afflictions that came with being of the world. Yet, ironically, it was those very afflictions that had molded her into being so ethereal.

He would have been content to just observe her for the rest of the day, but she straightened out her back and tossed him a glance over her shoulder.

"Good afternoon Sesshomaru," She smiled her broken smile.

"Evening would be more appropriate," The sun would set in just a few hours.

"Is it?" She looked up at the sky, her eyes wide like she had never seen it before. "I guess I lost track of time in my musings," She sighed as she began walking up to him, "Want to go for a walk?"

"That sounds enjoyable," Kagome reached out, the long sleeve falling back to expose a delicate white wrist, which was connected to the hand that now held his limp one.

Sesshomaru found it rather peculiar that he was neither shocked, nor bothered by her actions. He walked a few steps behind her as she led him to the exact spot he had expected her too, the little hill with the lone Japanese Maple, that overlooked the forest and horizon, where the sun set.

_Such an odd wench, _he thought as he sped his step up, so he was walking even with her. His eyes fell on her as she continued to stare forward. _Very odd, indeed._

"How time flies when you dwell on the past," He drummed his fingers on the ground. No matter how much of the world he had seen, this spot was still the most beautiful. _So many memories are tied to this spot._

She was reclining beside him, staring out at the pink and orange hues of twilight. He had decided it was her favorite time of day.

"Sesshomaru?"

"Hm?"

"When will I be allowed to go after Naraku, again?" She looked up at him from the corners of her eyes.

"We will go when you're inferior human body is healed completely." He saw her eyebrow rise.

"We, Sesshomaru?"

"Hm" _You won't be alone again Kagome._

She looked up at the sky, looking more content than he had seen her since, well ever.

"Once Upon a Time," her voice floated to his ears on the breathy whisper of the wind, "there was a lonely demon slayer," her face took the look it always had when she recalled tales, or insights. Her eyes glazed, her lips parted, her voice became more like a harmony to a lovers ballad. "Who lost everyone she ever loved. From her entire family, to the one man she ever cared for. She had loved a perverted monk, who often grouped woman sporadically, though it was well known he only loved her. She was there as he died, watched as she could do nothing to save the love of her life, as he fell victim to his hand. She heard his last words. Words that she had dreamt of hearing come from his lips to her, _I love you._

"The girl truly lived in her own world of depression and inner demons. She tried to hide the hurt, but when she thought no one was watching, she would gaze off into space solemnly, and the silent tears would fall, or her hands would go to her back, and lightly trace the scar that of her own blood had given her." Kagome took a deep breathe, not to steady her emotions like she would have in the past, but too think of the next part of the Fairytale.

Sesshomaru was quickly finding new respect for the human race, in this one girl and the stories of her companions.

"Thus brings us to the end of the tale known as Sango; There came a day when we battled Naraku's hordes of demons. Everyone too preoccupied with their own battles to realize the brother and sister demons slayers disappear into the thick forest in a battle together. When we did arrive at the scene in the forest this is what had laid before our eyes;

'_Free me sister,'_ Kohaku was obviously straining to stay in control of his own self. Keeping the monster of his possessed self at bay. His fading orbs stared up at his sister, who pinned him with her body and knees, and held a sword poised above his chest.

'_Forgive me Kohaku,'_ Tears fell freely from those warm chocolate eyes as she thrust the sword deep into her own brothers' heart, before pulling it back out in a jerky motion. All watching could do nothing more than stand staring in awe.

'_Forgive me everyone,' _The words came out so rushed as she raised the sword to her chest.

'_Forgive me God,'_ She was so quick with her thrust, not even the superior speed of Inu Yasha could beat the sword. She fell to her knees, those tear filled brown eyes staring straight out at me.

'_He wasn't meant for this world'_ Blood trickled from her lips as she let out the mere whisper, before her face fell into the dirt."

Kagome sighed. "I stayed up all that night trying to save her. Trying to save her and crying." She put her head in her hands. "I used to think she could still be alive if I had just done something, instead of stand there like a fool in shock." The old reminisces of pain in her eyes, but still no tears.

"Though if I had, I would have ruined her ending."

"Her ending?" He questioned lightly.

"Though she acted so tough, she and her brother a like, were not meant for the life they lived. She just wanted to be free. She wasn't meant for the manacles of pain." Kagome's eyes fell to the cool grass, as her fingers separated the blades.

"Kagome," His voice trailed off. He hadn't a clue as to what to say.

Cerulean orbs, that held a spark so dim, stared up into his soul.

_So much,_ his mind was chaos, _so much I need to say. I want to say. But I don't know how. What would be the repercussions. _It was overpowering in his chest, that he, Sesshomaru, was afraid. Afraid that it would stop his very breath. It was so serene and quiet here on this hill, but it was pure cacophony in his ears.

"Find your own freedom," he stood quickly and briskly took off in the direction of his castle.

These feelings were unwanted. This compassion that seared through his chest was not welcomed.

* * *

He stood from where he had sat, circling the stone, and picking at the sporadically growing flowers.

* * *

Sesshomaru was frantic, the woman was no where to be found within his castle gates. 

_I specifically told her not to step off of the grounds without my accompaniment. _He was seething but something baffled him; how could one silly, human miko get passed his guards? He highly doubted they would go against his orders and just allow her to saunter through the gates.

The demon lord was trying frantically to follow her light scent of lotus blossoms, and something else, something that was her own essence, but it was proving difficult now that her scent was laced throughout his entire castle. It was almost like she was part of it now. Meshed in with everything else of it.

His nose was trying to decipher what path to take, by where her scent was strongest, and most recent.

It all smelled so faint. _She must've been missing for some time now. How could her absent presence go unnoticed for so long? _Sesshomaru walked past stalks of young bamboo, when he came to one section of the castle wall that had thick passion flower vines growing up its side.

Something was amiss.

He approached the wall in attempts to figure out what exactly it was. The vines were clear signs that some had used them as a make shift ladder. _Clever girl, _he thought as he jumped over the high wall.

His feet landed softly upon the Earth floor of the opposite side of his castle gate. He instantly began walking down the path that would undoubtedly lead to her. So it was not surprising to him in the least, when he crested the small hill, that she sat there, one blue kimono clad knee drawn to her chin.

"Why did you follow me?" Kagome was so beautifully nostalgic sitting there underneath the Japanese maple staring off into the horizon.

_Why did I follow her?_ It posed a good question, though he decided dwelling on it would bring him no benefit.

"Why did you leave?" He countered instead.

"Why do people usually leave Sesshomaru?" Her eyes never wavered, never flicked over to him, this irked Sesshomaru to no end and he felt the undying need to bring those eyes to him.

"I assume different people have different reasons," he spoke after a moments pause.

"No," her voice was crisp and bitter like she had been crying, though this possibility he found highly unlikely. "People always leave for the same basic reason; to get away, or at least pretend like leaving will end the pain and bring forth the soothing relief of forgiveness." She drew her bow shaped lips into a line.

"Kagome," She closed her eyes. "Kagome," Still they did not open. Something pinched in Sesshomarus' chest. Something unknown and unwanted, but still present. He had the urge to touch her. He had to touch her. Feel the warm skin and be sure the blood still was flowing beneath it.

_I must._

His clawed hand reached out to her and in a blink of an eye he was on his knees firmly bringing her to his chest while shaking her with his body.

He couldn't control himself any longer, now that he had touched her skin, he had been set off. "Kagome!" The call was so strange, so foreign, so emotional.

_Damn Karma to Hell_

He felt something warm slide down his neck. He pulled back suddenly, looking into her deadpan eyes, that shined with very alive tears.

"Kagome?" He began very unsure of everything. A feeling ran through his body from his chest to his brain, which he now clearly understood to be confusion. Unease and hot liquid emotion settled into the pit of his stomach. "What is wrong?"

"I am tired," she raised empty orbs to him, "I am tired, and I am only nineteen." She was surprised she even recalled her age. There had been no need for birthdays in the Feudal Era. Oh no, no, only thing needed in the Feudal Era seemed to be heartache and jewel shards.

Sesshomaru found it hard to swallow and pressed her up against his body,

"Once Upon a Time, there was an orphaned kitsune," he felt her eyelashes brush his collarbone, signaling the closing of her eyes, "He was a lively little prankster with a spark for life, despite his losses. Though he was young, he wanted retribution for his parents' unjust murder. Fighting was not the life intended for such a soul," Sesshomarus' hand instinctively clutched the enormous soul living in this petite girls body at those particular words. "Thus brings us to the end of this tale: it was an ugly wet dark day. A terrible omen, especially after our past misfortunes. We paid no heed. We were depressed and miserable, just the three of us, the way it began. We would not stop, too driven by our craving for revenge. It burned from the pits of our stomachs to our swollen bloodshot eyes. He tried so hard to courageous, tried so hard to be what he thought I wanted him to be, when I just wanted him to be the child he was meant to be.

"I had fallen from a particularly nasty tentacle that Naraku had shot out at me, while another stopped a few feet from me, pausing menacingly above my heart. Just as it shot out to finish me, Shippou jumped out in front of it, facing me. Tears filled his eyes as I watched the tentacle shoot through his young, innocent chest, his last words will burn in me forever: _'I let one of my mothers die. I won't let another.' _" She was shaking so hard he was scared she'd shake her very soul out of her body. "So was the end of the little kitsune known as Shippou"

Sesshomaru looked out at his distant castle, while he held this fragile human priestess in his arms. This beautifully fragile priestess in his arms.

Too much flowed through his body. Too many thoughts. _Too much. Conviction. Damnation. Too much. Fate_

Then he felt hot tears roll down his neck and felt the uncharacteristic urge to sigh when a thought dawned on him, that was absolutely acting remarkably uncharacteristically. He fully blamed the being that he held tightly in his arms.

He searched for resentment, called for it, wanted it, but it could not be found. He couldn't resent this woman, it was impossible for him.

_Weren't these feelings the reason I removed Rin from my presence?_

It would almost secure his fate to be forced to feel these emotions, though he quickly pushed the notion aside for fear if it was dwelled upon for too long it would become fact.

"I'm sorry," She breathed out, her voice light as a feather and as cracked as the Shikon no Tama. His eyes snapped to her, and stared into dark tresses. Before he could ask she elaborated. "I'm sorry for feeling. I thought I was beyond this weakness by now. Thought I'd never shed another pathetic tear." She pushed off of him abruptly and walked past him to the castle never turning back, as he kneeled there as she had left him, his arm dangling limply.

Is this Earth or is it Hell?


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: So mostly I re read some of my reviews and it made me happy I was appreciated so I thought I reciprocate by putting this chapter up. I think it's a bit shorter than most and I am not sure if I am fully satisfied but regardless here it is.

* * *

**Remnants of a Fairytale  
By: MirokuisMine**

The man laid back onto the cool grass his deep eyes staring up into the afternoon sky. He had the urge to cry thinking about the particular memory. _I don't know what I hated more, seeing her pretend she didn't want to cry or seeing the tears fall._

* * *

"Sesshomaru," She stood in the entrance to his bed chambers. A rich green furisube on, her hand placed on the frame of the massive wooden doors.

"Kagome," he didn't look up from the papers he was reading. He was reclining in his elegant four poster bed, white silk sheets pooling at his hips and covering his long legs. He had not felt like rising and preparing for the day, instead he had chosen to lie in bed and read over paperwork from other Lords and Ladies.

She walked boldly into the room, going straight to his bed and climbing on top of it. "Sesshomaru where are w-"

She was cut off by a disgruntled Jaken running into the room.

The toads jaw dropped at the sight that met his bulging eyes. "Lord Sesshomaru my deepest apologies! I told the wench," his eyes cut evilly to Kagome who was staring almost bored back at him, "that you were far to busy for her silly qualms but when I turned to leave she beat me over the head with her old crutch, she keeps by her bed-"

"Enough Jaken," Sesshomaru was trying to suppress laughter at the mental images he was currently getting.

"M'lord?"

"You are excused Jaken, the miko remains," with that Sesshomaru turned his eyes back to his papers.

Jaken cast a suspicious look at Kagome before exiting and closing (with difficulty) the heavy wooden double doors.

"Sesshomaru?" Kagome was staring up at him intently, he could feel it.

"Hm?" he continued to read over his papers.

"Jaken said that I was to go with you on your business today?" Those eyes remained on him.

"Hm," he replied once again. He knew why she was even bothering to question him on the matter, he never took her with him when he left the castle for business, no matter what it was.

Kagome continued to stare up at him, studying. He looked up at her with his blank gold eyes, staring back at her.

"Well I guess I should go prepare to travel," she smiled sadly at him as she slid off the bed and continued to walk out of the room.

He turned his attention back to his papers, though his thoughts weren't really on them, just as they hadn't been all morning.

_What would you think of me Kagome if you knew that I was scared what you would do if I left you, even for one day?_

He sighed standing from his bed and walking to his armoire.

* * *

_Really what was I so scared about? That you'd kill yourself? _He laughed sadistically at the thought. _I knew better than that, you wanted retribution far too badly._ He sighed and smiled sadly. _No I was scared of losing any precious time with you. _

* * *

Kagome sat in the middle of the huge bed Sesshomaru had provided for her. She clutched her white silky sheets to her chest.

She was fighting off the demons that tortured her sleep. Her eyes drifted to the canopy that hung over her beautiful bed. It was almost like she could see their faces there.

"You are haunting me," she said quietly to the room. Her dull eyes looked all around, searching for solace. "I'm sorry," she put her head on her drawn up knees.

* * *

Sesshomaru sipped lightly on his green tea awaiting Kagome for their lunch. He couldn't ease the unease of her not being there at that exact moment._ Where is she anyway? _She really should've been here from her bath already.

As if she knew he was thinking about her the guards pushed open the doors to the massive dining room. She was silhouetted there, in her simple yukata she had taken to wearing now that the weather was far too hot for the heavy fabrics of furisubes. With the light the garment was vapid, he could see every curve on her body screaming femininity. She took a few light steps into the room as the guards shut the heavy doors open. She looked out the numerous windows of the dining room before looking up at him.

"Where have you been?" He realized he said it a bit too tensely.

Of course her being an astute individual caught the terseness of it. "Why are you so concerned?"

He didn't like the way this interaction felt, they'd never really done this before but once he started he couldn't quite.

"You give yourself far too much credit. I am not concerned about you." He took a sip of his tea to try to cover the guilt that he felt at the words.

"Is that what you told Rin?" Kagome was standing across the table from him now, her eyes downcast on her own tea she now held in her hands. She was so casual and Gods did it infuriate him.

"Watch your place miko." He knew he really ought to loosen his grip on his tea cup it was threatening to crack.

"Haven't we been over this before," her eyes cut maliciously up to his, and he couldn't control the feeling that it really was a look he never again wanted directed at him, "What are you going to do? Kill me again?" She placed a hand on the top of the table as to lean closer to stare him in the eyes. "Do you miss her that much? Is that why you put up with me? Is it your pity for me that allows you to sleep at night."

He knew exactly who the 'her' she was referring was and that made it all the more aggravating.

_Rin._

As he opened his mouth to make a sarcastic retort back to her she cut him off with a softer tone, but it still held so much underlying viciousness, it was alarming, "If you regret, Sesshomaru, you will lose your own life," she straightened back up, tea cup poised delicately on one palm, while the other hands slender fingers curled around it. She brought it up and sipped from it, her cerulean orbs viewing him from just above the rim.

"Do as you preach priestess," he felt the words leave an ugly red welt on her heart as the cup crashed to the floor. He could hear the tearing of her heart as she turned sharply on her heel and, with obvious strain, walked quickly from the room without bursting out into a full fledge run.

Mere seconds after those heavy doors were shut you could hear the most impressive racket of crashing dishes and splintering wood ever.

* * *

"I have to say," He was laying on his back staring up at the sky, a butterfly glided across his vision, "That was the most terrifying thing ever." He smirked lightly as he continued to watch the butterfly.

* * *

He was nervous and damn it he had every right to be. She had been in her room for two weeks now, only coming out to go to the bath chambers, she was even taking meals in her room. If she was even eating, she looked alarmingly thin lately.

Sesshomaru had a very suspicious sinking feeling that he was feeling guilty. Of course he was too proud to admit it.

Still the woman was scaring him out of his mind and that was something he was willing to confess.

So he found himself sitting outside her door at, God only knows what time. It must have been so late, or was it early? He felt like he ought to be close to her, he'd been stationed here for an hour or so now.

His head lifted slightly, he heard a sharp in take of breathe from inside the room.

"Stop," her whisper was so light which was followed by equally light sobs.

Sesshomaru's clawed hand came up to rest on the door, as he lightly pushed it open and stepped inside the dark room.

It was so morbid in the room. It was dark, not only from night but the obvious mood of its inhabitant dampened it. It was quite obvious she hadn't allowed servants to clean it as furisubes and yukatas were strewn everywhere, along with random papers. He looked at the grand four poster bed, where a minute figure curled in a fetal position laid, back to him.

Kagome's body was racking with sobs that she was obviously trying to repress.

She didn't seem to realize he was in the room as he slowly walked towards her bed.

_Step, Step, Step…_ It was a mantra he was repeating in his head. The only consciously clear thought he possessed.

_Why do things always have to be so complicated with her? _He felt his brow crease at the very true epiphany.

This made him stop. Why was he tormenting himself?

His eyes stayed upon her form as she tossed restlessly until her body rested facing him. Kagome's cerulean eyes were wide open and focused on him.

That look was so intense. It burnt. He wanted to destroy her eyes, pluck them out. They were so perfect and that hurt him so fucking much.

"Feelings mean nothing," her voice was light but held such a strength his eyes shifted from those damn searing eyes to the chapped pink lips.

Still his eyes of their own accord went back up to her searing orbs. Those eyes were saying so much to him.

"I am feeling so lonely," something new flashed in her eyes. It was then that Sesshomaru knew all she needed in that moment was for him to help her. To make the moisture dry from those ethereal eyes. They cried and ached for him to just touch her and make it better.

His body was disintegrating, he could feel it. It was that unabashed need, loneliness shining through her pupils, she didn't need to tell him. He could see it there and damn it all to hell it hurt.

_I feel so damned. I can't decide if she is the damnation or the retribution. _His eyes continued to lock with hers.

Yet again the thought occurred to him. _Why do I torment myself with her?_

He turned crisply on his heel. Those next six steps were achingly slow. They sent jolts of pain up his legs to his chest. Still he never looked back as he closed the door on her. As he left her in darkness.

* * *

"I guess it was a psychological thing for me," he was talking again to the polished rock, "I had only learned abandonment from my parents," he smiled letting his canines protrude slightly, "it's what came naturally to me."

* * *

Sesshomaru felt like a fool. A damn right fool.

He looked up at the bright sky, resisting the urge to squint. It was barely afternoon and he was already riding Ah-Un back to the castle. He felt like a damn fool because he had specifically said he would be gone for at least a couple of days, and here he was a few hours after leaving and he was turning around and heading back to the castle.

_That damn woman._ He wanted to pull his own hair out he was so frustrated.

Instead he sat crossed legged on the back of his massive two headed pet youkai. He leaned his head into the palm of his hand, while his tapped his claws of his other hand upon the rough green scales of the demon.

_I wonder if insanity suits me, _he smirked idly, _because I am without a doubt losing sanity quickly_.

_I don't see why I'm really even going back, _he thought in exasperation, _I'll go back to find what? Her still locked in her room._

The whole reason he had truly even left to do business with the Lady of the Northern Land was to just get out of that castle. She was laced into it. Her aura had infected it like a horrible disease that he was unable to escape.

Him leaving was proof that she didn't affect him.

He heard a little voice in the back of his head laugh at him and he growled aloud in response.

_I don't care about her. I walked out on her._ He nodded his head at this. It was true he left her to bathe in her own misery.

This thought wasn't as comforting as he had hoped.

That was it.

Sesshomaru stood upon Ah-Un. "Stop, we are turning back." _I'll be damned if I turn around because of that bitch. _He crossed his arms firmly over his chest as Ah-Un began turning and trotting forward.

As he let his eyes cut back one last time in the direction that he knew his castle to lay, he saw something peculiar.

"Stop again Ah-Un," The beast obediently stopped mid step as Sesshomaru jumped from its back into a slightly taller tree.

He was sure of it now.

There was a strange black mass laying above the area his castle was located.

It was ominous and foreboding and he just didn't like it at all. After all it was his castle.

"Ah-Un return to the castle, I am going back on my own," not a second after that he had jumped to the ground and was traveling as fast as his demon blood could take him.

After all it was his castle.

Sesshomaru felt like his legs weren't taking him fast enough, a feeling he had never experienced. And it wasn't doing much to keep him calm.

After all it was his castle at risk here.

If he felt anything after that point on his run to the castle he couldn't tell, his entire being was focused on one goal and that was reaching that castle as fast as he could.

Damn it, it was his castle and he had to protect it.

He was searing when he finally cleared the forest and his castle lay in front of him.

However it wasn't exactly what he had expected to find.

It was Naraku's demon bugs that swarmed, just as he had expected, yet they were not actually over his castle, but off to the East a bit.

He felt his heart clench.

Because he knew exactly which village it was they were swarming over.

Again the searing returned to his body as he took off to the village in question. He was almost through the forest when he sensed Kagomes' presence, and sure enough there she was. Running as fast as her previously broken leg would allow her, her bow and quiver of arrows slung over her back.

He didn't have time to stop for the woman as he ran straight past her.

"Sesshomaru!" Her voice drifted to him on the wind as he reached the village.

What lay before his eyes would haunt him. Forever.

Naraku stood there, transformed tentacles out and clasping a squirming figure.

"Ah Lord Sesshomaru," the cold cackle that served as Naraku's voice grated Sesshomaru's ears, "So nice of you to join us." He nodded his head to the squirming and screaming person in his clutches.

_Fucking bastard. Damn him to fucking hell. _

His heart was so tight as he watched the silly little human girl who had once tried to save him. The very one who plagued him with emotion and started this whirlwind of feeling that had escalated to this damn compassion.

"I take it you are acquainted to my new little friend here," he turned and menacingly smiled at the flaying girl.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Fire burned in her eyes as she turned to Naraku, "He is going to kill you! No one can face the might Lor-"

There was a distinct snapping sound in the general vicinity.

It could be argued that it was the innocent girl's neck, or the demon Lord's sanity.

His veins burnt livid with raw animosity unmatched by anything tangible and intangible in the world.

_Kill. Blood. Fucking murder. Damn. Half-blooded bastard. _

Sesshomaru's mind was just snippets of angry thoughts, he was unaware as the priestess stepped into the clearing and knocked and arrow and fired it at the abomination that was Naraku.

Pink light exploded. Brilliant pink light, enveloping the tentacles, searing the flesh off of them, the poison bugs evaporated into nothing more than dust, all that remained of the half blood demon was the spool that allowed the true Naraku to control his puppet.

Sesshomaru sent accusing eyes to the girl.

He had wanted so badly to sink his claws into flesh and just rip. Tear. Kill.

His eyes flashed to the heaped up little girl on the ground.

His brisk steps echoed loudly across the dirt. Sad eyes following his heels.

Metal grating was heard as he raised Tensaiga up and swiped it across the innocent body.

Nothing.

Fucking nothing.

Damned fucking nothing.

Sesshomaru didn't sense it happening as he transformed into his giant dog form and let out a pained howl and curled his body around the small girl that was once Rin.

Kagome took small hesitant steps forward, crouching, easing closer to the protective dog, who was really a broken demon lord.

As soon as she was within five feet the dog raised his head and growled threateningly at her, but she paid it no attention as she outstretched her fingers to graze the light soft fur and as soon as her hand made contact with the skin the giant beast began to shiver.

She wrapped her tiny arms around the impressively large animals leg, her face burning buried into the thick fur.

"Life is unfortunate. We are such a cosmic joke." His ears could pick up her muffled voice coming from his fur.

Just as he had not realized his transformation he did not realize his return to his more humanoid state, and the young woman whose arms were now wrapped around his waist and the little girl held in his arms.

This is what life was.

Cruel.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Heh, so this over a year later. But I just happened across this story and re read it. It was like I was reading someone else's work and I wanted to know how it ended. I couldn't get enough I felt like I had to know. So I am continuing on with it. I don't even watch this show anymore or think about it or ever even read fanfiction, but I do remember why I loved writing this story. So I hope my writing style hasn't changed too much as to not take away from the story. I also hope I can still pull the same emotion I used to use when writing this so it feels the same. Let me know if I accomplish either.

**Remnants of a Fairytale**

**By: xXxMirokuisMinexXx**

* * *

He rolled over onto his stomach in the thick grass and inhaled deeply. It had been hundreds of years but that memory still caused a twinge in his heart.

The height of the grass partially obstructed the view of the polished rock, so that all he could see of the ancient engraved words were the words at the bottom, where there was spacing in the blades. All he could see was 'Once Upon a Time'.

* * *

The three of them lay in the havoc of the demolished village for hours. He was too stunned by emotion that he hadn't experienced in so long that it was all he could do.

She had said nothing. All she had done was aide him when he sunk to his knees and then fell to his side still clutching the limp form of the small girl. Kagome had lain, in the dirt on the other side of Rin, just staring into his eyes.

He couldn't help but wonder if she recognized the look his eyes were emitting as the same that now seemed to permanently come from her blue ones.

They were just lying there separated by this dead little girl, her hand resting on his where it clutched to the fabric on Rin's side.

Dusk was settling. The fireflies were coming out and flickering gleefully in the darkness, the moon flowers were blossoming as they did at night and filled his nose with their scent. It was almost enough to overpower the smell of death.

Almost.

Still her eyes were locked on his. She rarely blinked. She barely moved albeit for the up and down motions of her chest as she took in air.

_How long can we stay like this, _his mind wondered. If it was up to his heart it would be forever, he would lay here until for some reason or another he ceased to exist.

Just staring into the deadpan eyes of a priestess and holding the little girl he had pushed away for fear of his love for her. She was like a daughter.

Guilt now gripped his heart. It was unrelenting. It was a cruel friend to have.

He understood it now.

He understood her pain to some extent.

To realize love.

To realize what it felt like to lose it.

To feel the guilt for it's disappearance.

_I should have kept her with me. I should have watched over her like she needed. I should have allowed her in. _

He did something he couldn't ever remember doing in all his life.

As his sanity began to slip from his mind, his tears came with it.

The great inuyoukai of the West began to cry.

Reduced to the actions of weak humans.

And pride be damned he didn't give a fuck.

To hell with the pride, to hell with locking away of emotion, to hell with the pushing of everything away. In this moment Sesshomaru understood something about himself he never had.

He was a coward.

All the bullshit about emotion being weak proved his own weakness.

Emotion crippled worse than anything. To accept emotion, to feel it was much harder. It took way more courage. It took strength the great demon lord wasn't sure he possessed.

His life full of pretenses seemed to burn away. His heart felt shattered.

It took the death of one little girl to cause him to have this epiphany.

Life was harsh and unrelenting in the price of self realization.

He felt consciousness ebb away as he stared into cerulean eyes, he welcomed it. He wanted to sleep and not feel for awhile.

She must have sensed it and known better.

"Once upon a time," his half lidded eyes flew open once more. _Damn her, all I want is it to go away for at least now, all the repressed guilt._ The little miko had other plans.

"There was a young girl named Rin," his heart ached at the mention of the name. "Not much is known about her before a demon Lord came into her life, but what is known is that she lived an unhappy life, for some reason or another he parents died. She was left orphaned, too young to truly provide for herself naïve to the ways of reality. Yet she did it. Miraculously the little girl made a place for herself in the world. A cruel place where she was barely sustained but she did something hundreds couldn't have on their own; she survived." Kagome's hand was no longer just resting on his hand but had intertwined with it and was squeezing it as she spoke evenly and coolly to him. "Until one day fate came into play and a pack of wolves chased her down and killed her. Luckily for the little girl a demon Lord just so happened to be about and found her. Dead in the woods. He revived her with his families' precious heirloom Tenseiga. The reason the Lord of the moonlit lands did so in unknown, probably even to him since he was revered for hating humans. After that day she loyally followed him to the end of the Earth. Loved him like a father and began to unlock his heart to the world." He couldn't decide he wanted to kill her right now or continue to let her speak. It hurt in the most glorious way to hear this fairytale. All this was still to new to process for him. He didn't know if this is how it was for everyone. Did she feel this overwhelmed by various swirling emotions? Or was it just because he had never learned how to label them, past hate?

"Unfortunately others saw and realized the transformation she had on the Lord. He too noticed it, rather it was subconscious or not. So we come to the end of the tale known as Rin. He sent her away. He made excuses for it. Never truly admitting why he really did it, for it is unknown if he at that time realized the real reason for it. He wasn't trying to allow her to have a normal childhood. He was trying to protect her, thinking distance was the safest course for both of them. But as I said others realized to connection, and one maliciously intent hanyou sought to use it against the inu youkai. So when he knew the Lord of the lands was far enough away that he could not make it in time, but would still realize the undeniable danger, he struck. He laid waste to the village she had been residing in. Picked off every living soul, killing time till the demon Lord arrived. When he did he no longer played it out, no longer toyed with her. He simply murdered her."

Sesshomaru's eyes glazed he wanted her to hold him and it made him feel childish. But he wanted her comfort, and then what he now realized was guilt hit him again. He was dying for what had denied her. To just be comforted. He didn't get to further dwell on it though because she had ended the impregnated pause and started up on it again.

"She was a cruel sideshow in a murderers plot, to make one of his greatest rivals go insane with guilt." She leaned up on her elbows and look intently into her eyes.

"Sesshomaru," he couldn't respond to her he just stared back. "Do not let the bastard end her story the way he wants to."

Cold air seeped into his chest as she stood.

She reached down offering her hand to him.

He took it and slowly stood, staring down at her. She placed a hand on his face.

Her eyes conveying things no one in life can articulate. Something you have to feel and transpire through mutual understanding of it. But it can not be expressed in words.

His hand trembled as he reached it up and placed his own clawed fingers on her face. He lightly traced her jaw line, fingers searing with the contact of flesh.

"Show me the way Kagome."

* * *

He crossed his arms in front of him and laid his head in the crook of one of his elbows.

"You didn't let me give up you stubborn pain the ass. You wanted me to deal with it. You made me learn how to deal with the emotion, the only way you knew how. By just accepting it and living with it. Letting it affect you everyday but never letting it make you quit."

He closed his eyes and continued on with his nostalgia.

* * *

The bright white walls of his castle seemed gray today.

They seemed tainted with something, and he pondered it as he stood in the finest of his castles gardens.

In it there was a small gathering.

In it there was a beautiful casket made of marble.

In it was a beautiful dead little girl.

He stood there the façade of being emotionless on his face, as he watched some of his guards dig rectangular hole in his garden, between the orange plants Rin loved to pick fruit off of, and the Iris light of dawns.

Kagome was on his right side, dressed in a black furisube holding a bouquet of bright pink Peony flowers. Her raven her was rustling in the wind and all he wanted in the world was to hold her hand through this.

He just didn't think he could bring himself the courage to do it.

Her aura was soothing him and making this monumentally difficult moment in his life bearable.

After the hole was properly done Sesshomaru bid everyone leave the gardens, except himself, Kagome, and Jaken.

He wanted to lay the girl in the ground himself.

He walked over to the lovely casket and laid a hand on it.

She walked up behind him and laid her hand on top of his. He turned his head to find her staring at him.

"It'll never stop hurting Sesshomaru." She stated it matter of factly. Like she felt it was time for him to really deal with it.

Sesshomaru's golden eyes bore into her and he quirked his mouth sadly.

"I don't want it to." He nodded his head and she slowly stepped back as he lifted the immensely heavy stone and kneeled at the edge of the hole and gently lowered it down into it.

_It's all so unfair. I get an eternity to live and she got barely a decade. _He couldn't help but feel a slight jealousy ridden with guilt for humans at this point. For they lived for such a short period of time it was necessity to learn things quickly. To live brashly. To feel fully.

For him it had taken a century to get to learn what guilt and love are.

How ludicrous that fact was.

He was sure Rin had learned more in her decade about life then he had still to this point.

He somberly stared into the hole as began to cover it with dirt.

There was no need for a eulogy. Kagome had provided the perfect one the night of her death.

No one could give her a better send off then the one she had already received. It was tragically perfect for a little girl still at the age of being caught up in the fantasy and wonder of fairytales.

All Sesshomaru wanted for this day was silent mourning.

He began the task of covering her with the Earth.

He didn't look up when another person had picked up the work of it. He already knew she would. It was something she would want to do. They continued to work at a slow rate until it was done some time later. It was like he was savoring the last of Rin. He wanted this last moment of her, dead or not. He wanted it to drag out for eternity, but it couldn't there were things to be done.

It was time to pick up the pieces and keep giving life a go.

After she was covered properly and the flowers laid on top and the beautiful tombstone set, Jaken left not caring much for the melancholy atmosphere, and no longer feeling welcomed nor necessary within the presence of his Lord and the Priestess.

Kagome sat at the foot of her grave and Sesshomaru stood towering over her for many hours into the night. They never spoke.

They barely moved.

Eventually he sat beside her and his hand found hers and clasped it.

Right now was a time for remembering and nothing else.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: Another chapter in less than twelve hours.

You can never understand how immersed that means I must be in this. I am the queen of procrastination.

* * *

**Remnants of a Fairytale**

**By: MirokuisMine**

* * *

Sesshomaru sat in the dimness of his personal study, his desk covered in an array of piles of papers all bearing reports on the welfare of his lands. He was gazing absently at the approaching night through his window.

It had been two weeks since his beloved Rin passed.

He had a little too logically decided it was time to stop mourning.

He didn't know if that was how it was supposed to work but he had already decided it was how he was going to do it, and Sesshomaru was steadfast in his decisions.

His eyes fell blankly on the beautiful kanji scripts in front of him. _I should ask Kagome if it is normal to just decide to stop mourning. _

_Kagome, _he thought about her. He'd seen her everyday since the funeral but they had not really talked since.

She seemed to understand he needed to mourn in silence.

He needed the quiet to figure it all out. To sort all the emotions out and bear them.

It was all so foreign to him. No more denying it. The Lord of the West felt.

_Of course no one needs to know it, who can't figure it out themselves._

He just no longer had the energy nor the need to lie to himself. All those thought to be self preserving lies where just falling away.

He was slowly becoming everything he thought he hated; everything his father had been.

Ironically, he didn't care. There of course was still a sliver of all his previous false pretenses tugging at his conscious. He battled with himself in his mind at the late hours of night when he was left to his personal devices.

All the emotions were hard, he didn't know what to label them all. Didn't know the variations in sadness, or love, or any other varying emotion, he didn't understand there were different levels and kinds to them.

_I feel like a child learning to walk for the first time on my own, _this thought sent a shot of rage through him which was a feeling he did understand. The Lord of the Western Lands had been reduced to a clueless confused fool.

_That damned Priestess has come into my life and laid waste to my sanity and everything I knew. _His eyebrows knitted. At that moment he wished he'd left the woman to die in the forest. Everything was textbook, so immaculate until she came and turned it all upside down.

He pushed back from his desk and stood up intent on finding her and tearing her to shreds. He exited the study and paced feverently towards her room.

Once outside the room he listened intently for her even breathing, he wanted to kill her in her sleep so she couldn't use those fucking eyes to change his mind.

His anger was like liquid in the pit of his stomach.

When he heard no breathing on the other side of the door the white hot liquid in his stomach changed from rage to a cold sinking feeling in his gut.

That slight worry he harbored in the back of his mind nagged at him again. He always had the slight fear she could no longer bear it all. After all she had already gotten a taste for the peace death offered.

He flung the door open to see her bed bare completely stripped of the covers.

His eyes narrowed and he growled to himself, pacing to her balcony and looking out it expecting to see her limp form hanging dead from it. Instead he saw the sheets tied together to create a rope to climb down to the courtyard.

Sesshomaru held back the urge to roll his eyes. He leapt with ease of the balcony and began searching her out among the courtyard. His nose pointed towards the part of the castle wall she was known for climbing over at. Without hesitation he jumped the wall and went to her spot.

Not expecting anything just hell bent on find the infuriating woman.

Once he was upon the hill he was alarmed to find she was not actually there. Though it was apparent she had been recently he could smell her.

His rage subsided into full blown worry. He followed her trace into the woods all the while cursing her and trying to call forward his rage again for when he did find her, if she was not already killed by some demon.

The path made by her he was following he knew to lead to a hot spring surrounded by bamboo off a little of the East side of his castle walls.

He ran with haste to the area only thinking about how he wished he could call forward his anger for her again so he could shamelessly kill her when he found her.

When he made his way through the bamboo and came to the edge of the springs he stopped on a dime.

Honestly he didn't know what he had expected.

_It would have been easier if she had been at the claws of some lesser demon, _he deduced. Now he felt a little childish sitting here after hunting her out, and she was just bathing.

She was waded out in the water her back to him, the long raven hair almost reaching to her exposed back side, only illuminated by the soft glow of the moon. The scars from her death marring the smooth skin all over. The spot where the arrow had shot all the way through a bright white against the ivory of her skin.

He couldn't explain what he felt to see her there perfectly fine. He just sat on the edge of the springs and stared out at her.

_She's so beautiful, _was the only thing crossing his mind. He'd always known it. He'd always appreciated it even when she was just Inu Yasha's wench to him.

She emitted something. It was hard to say what it was but she had an addictive quality to her. Her looks only played a small part in her beauty.

She was humming and running her hands through her long hair she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts as she always was.

He couldn't decide if she was aware of his presence or not, _she must that miko couldn't ignore a demon with as strong as a yoki as me just mere meters from her. _

She turned slowly and languidly in the steaming water to face him. Her eyes half lidded, her body completely bare. Sesshomaru again felt that uncomfortable feeling that she never tried to cover herself in front of him. Like something trivial as her nudity no longer concerned her. It was just so unnerving how blatant she could be with her body.

She smiled at him, "Good evening Sesshomaru."

He frowned at her, "Why did you sneak off? We have a hot spring in the castle walls."

She tilted her head at him and waded closer to him and reclined against on stone in the water facing him. "I am suffocating in those walls."

"I don't like it." He stated an edge creeping to his voice.

She blinked at him, her face registering the roughness in his voice, "It's not for you to like or dislike."

He glared at her. "You are an infuriating woman."

He remembered this interaction. It was the one he didn't like. It was the one they experienced in the dining hall.

Her body went a little rigid and some of the angry fire he used to see ignite in her eyes when confronted came to life, "You don't own or control me oh Great Lord of the West," he definitely did not appreciate the sarcasm.

Sesshomaru jumped up from his sitting position and gave her a meaningful look as he angrily paced into the water after her. Kagome jumped up from her reclining position to stand up to him. Ready to defend herself if she had to.

She pissed him off so much he didn't even know what he was going to do. _That outright fucking defiance, _he just had to get to her do something, prove some point to her he wasn't even sure of. She had made him go through a fucking kaleidoscope of emotions tonight and he was in overload and he had to just get to her. He hadn't even talked to her truly in two weeks.

He needed to feel her.

He just hadn't at this point hadn't yet decided if it would be to choke her or embrace her.

She was squaring off preparing for whatever he was going to do.

Her glare made him stop a foot in front of her. The water went almost up to his waste and past hers and his silk kimono was weighing him down in the water.

The little miko stood there defiantly daring him to try anything with her eyes. "Well Sesshomaru?" Venom dripped off the way she said his name.

He was innately enraged now. She managed to muddle up everything. All his plans she managed to confuse and change.

He smirked viciously at her. "You know, you're such a silly little human. You talk all the time about dealing with it, everything you lost," his words held a harshness to them she hadn't hear him use in so long it caught her a little off guard and her eyes lost some of their hardness in the astonishment of it, "You can't even pick up the shards of everything miko. You can't even live your own life. You're living just for them. But little priestess what will you do once you kill Naraku, what will you live for then? They can't be brought back."

The look of confusion vanished from her eyes and they held volumes of anger and resentment.

In an instant her hand was up and poised to slap him. He let her. He felt perhaps he deserved it. He didn't remember a time since his mother died that he'd been struck in this manner, much less by a woman.

After she delivered the blow she stood there and lifted her hand to slap him again, but she was stopped by her own tears. She began to cry uncontrollably. Her body started to sink into the springs. Sesshomaru like lightning shot out his arms to catch her. She tried to get out of his grip. His grip tightened variably and she fought harder and wept harder, sobbing roughly causing her naked chest to rise and fall violently.

Remorse sank in.

_Damn it!_

It made him angry but more than anything he just wanted her to stop.

Wanted to fix it.

Wanted to take back all that he said though he knew it was true.

He pulled her body to his in a crushing embrace, and buried his face in her hair.

She stopped fighting him and threw her arms around his back and fisted them in the silk of his kimono. Her body racking with sobs.

"I," he didn't know what to say. It was like she was getting some of her old self back and he had again reduced her to this living dead. The worst was that he didn't know what to do to rectify his actions and words. He just held her. "Kagome I…" He trailed off unsure of himself. Unsure of who he even was anymore. Unsure if he deserved what he held in his arms to even be in his life. "I am so sorry."

They both knew indefinitely his apology was not only directed towards his harsh words. Like his sorry could fix all the wrong doing in her life.

And with everything that was Lord Sesshomaru ruler of the Western Lands he wished it did.

* * *

He once again stood and stretched.

"Damn that was a night huh?" He chuckled lightly, "You still were so very fiery, just slapping me right there completely naked in the hot springs." This caused his mind to remember what she looked like naked and it made him long for her more.

He shook his head and went back to his recollection of the night.

_That night had definitely not been one of their more pleasant ones he had ended up taking his kimono jacket off and wrapping her in it. She had become listless from all the crying. He knew his words had cut right to her heart, reopening old wounds and letting them bleed fresh. _

_He carried her back to the castle jumping onto her balcony with her exhausted form in his arms, her empty orbs staring up at him._

_He laid her in the four poster bed and retrieved the knotted sheets from their hanging spot on the edge of the balcony. He had straightened it all out and laid it over her motionless body, all the while her blank eyes just followed him._

_They burnt him, he felt like his flesh was being seared off. He sat on the edge of the bed and stared back at her. Regret written all over his face._

"_I'm sorry," he spoke it quietly to her again._

"_Don't be," her voice was dead she reminded him of Inu Yasha's dead bitch he had apparently descended into hell with, "What you said is true. I'm just a pathetic little girl and once I've killed Naraku there will be nothing left for me."_

"_Kagome…" He didn't know what to say, because he knew it to be true. "you have to find a reason for yourself to live again." He stared at her and she at him, "I need you to find your life again." He could've been mistaken but it seemed like the smallest of smiles had shown into her eyes. _

He exhaled deeply that memory was a difficult one. _That was the first time I really ever opened up to you._ He popped his back once more before sitting again in front of the tombstone.

* * *

The next morning Sesshomaru was skeptical if she would leave her rooms.

He desperately waited in the dining room where they normally ate their lunch together.

Minutes passed like millenniums.

His hand was getting a nervous twitch in it.

He wanted to openly berate himself, but realized it would make him even more insane to be sitting here alone chastising himself aloud.

He didn't know why he was so concerned about her showing up to lunch, but it seemed important to him and he couldn't shake the instinctual feeling.

His nose tingled. He could smell her down the hallway; he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. The doors opened to reveal her standing there. His breath caught. Her eyes were not dead as they were last night, not like he had expected them to still be. Not to say they were alive yet, but definitely a progression from last night.

She looked brilliant standing there in a plain blue yukata and her hair pleated neatly down her back tied with a matching deep blue ribbon.

"Good morning Sesshomaru," her voice still held that eerie quality to it.

He just nodded his head at her, too scared to utter a syllable.

He listened to the soft plodding of her feet across the wood floors as she made her way to her seat.

They ate peacefully for awhile, the Priestess from the future and the Lord of the Western Lands.

It wasn't until towards the end of the meal that Sesshomaru spoke the first words he had so far that day.

"Kagome," he looked up at her.

"Hm?" She was gazing at her cup of tea seemingly entranced by the elegant koi's painted on the side in dazzling orange hues.

He hated it when she did that, seemed to go out of her way to not look at him, he wondered if she realized it and that was the motive for it.

"I think it's time we begin to train," this caught her attention as she looked up from her musings over the porcelain cup in her hand.

"Train?" She said skeptically a slight tilt to her head.

Sesshomaru nodded his head pointedly.

He was rather enjoying the slight confusion etched across her delicate face.

It seemed more often that naught she had the upper hand against him in situations such as these and he liked shift in power.

After a pause he finally spoke again, "You really expect to kill Naraku without doing some training before? After all you have been quite idle in the past few months other than climbing castle walls."

A somber smile broke out across her face. A mesh of excitement and fear.

_I wonder if the fear is for the fact she doesn't know what she'll have left when he's dead._

She stood from her spot at the table and rushed over to him, practically throwing herself at Sesshomaru ending up in his lap her arms clasped tightly behind his neck. He felt a tear roll down her neck and right as he was about to question her about it her voice reached up to his ears.

"Thank you so much for finally consenting to this." He knew she would have gone alone to kill the hanyou, _was my consent that important on the matter?_

He couldn't help the smile that crept to his features as he reciprocated the gesture by wrapping his arms around her.

* * *

A spider crawled across a stem of grass directly in front of his face. He took the miniscule little thing on his finger and chuckled lightly at his remembrance of how much she hated the little beasts.

* * *

They had been sitting under the Japanese maple taking in the view of the horizon.

Just moments before they had been discussing her training. Sesshomaru had felt she needed to train with a sword as well as bow and arrow in case such a situation would arise that her bow and arrow would be useless.

"You need to learn how to utilize it as a conductor for your purification powers as well," he'd told her earlier. Kagome was clearly not very excited about the prospect of being close enough to Naraku to even be able to use a sword. But he would not feel comfortable allowing her to walk into battle until she was at the very least a decent swordsman. Too many things could go wrong where her precious little arrows would be useless.

He looked out of the corner of his eye to her.

She was as usual clearly lost in thoughts. Idly drumming her fingers on the ground.

He watched in light amusement as a spider clung for dear life to one of the drumming fingers. Finally the little thing managed to make it to the safety of her arm during the respites when her hand rested on the grass for a second.

Sesshomaru made a little chuckle because the sight had simply amused him, how she managed to disrupt things without even noticing. It held a simple irony.

Apparently his chuckle brought her back to the present though, "What's so funny?" She asked suspiciously her eyes slightly narrowed at him.

He shook his head and shrugged. "Nothing really just, that spider on your arm wa-" He never got to finish as dread filled her eyes at the mention of spider and she looked down to her arm where the little thing sat.

"AHHHHHH!" She began flailing madly.

Really he couldn't believe it.

She would stand up to countless demons and kill them should they give her reason to. She had faced off to Naraku countless times. Hell she'd even tried to kill him with one of those damn purification arrows. But here the mighty Priestess was screaming and having an anxiety attack over a little bug she could squish with ease.

"GET IT OFF OF ME!" He tried to reach over and calmly pluck it off where it still clung with all it's might to her arm. However he couldn't with the flailing of her arms.

"Kagome, if you would just stop for a moment I will get it off of you," he said with a hint of exasperation.

She stopped her arms movement, but he could hear her breathing pick up.

"Get. It. Off. Sesshomaru!" She was trying to keep her calm but he could tell she was vehement with the way she spat out each word under her breath. He smiled coyly at her as he reached over and plucked the insignificant thing off. He was about to squish it between his fingers when she yelled for him to stop.

He sighed and looked at her, "What now woman?"

"I didn't say I wanted you to kill it, I just wanted you to get it off of me," she said it like it was the most logical thing in the world.

She really was on verge of ridiculousness with her compassion for living things.

"As you wish oh merciful miko," he mocked playfully.

She slapped his arm lightly.

"You can't kill a spider but you can strike me?" He accused.

She leaned towards him and smiled playfully, "You give me reason Demon Lord."

The proximity she had put herself in relation to his face tempted him.

He still was unsure of what he felt for this girl.

But he did know for a fact her face was dangerously close, and her lips were quite pink and sweet looking.

He really didn't mean to.

But he did definitely do it.

He stuck his tongue out and ran them across her lips.

She was clearly taken aback by this and tilted her head at him.

_She always reminds me of a confused dog when she does that._

"Did," she paused raising an eyebrow, "Did you just lick me?"

"Quite possibly," his voice was flat.

"Indeed," she said giving him an indulgent smile and laughing lightly. "I do believe you have indefinitely quite lost it."

He shrugged his shoulders lightly, "It is quite plausible."

_I do rather like it when she acts this way, _Sesshomaru reluctantly admitted to himself as he reached out his clawed hand to move a strand of her hair behind her ear.

She smiled at him and scooted closer to lean her head on his shoulder. His body went rigid at the contact at first.

She didn't normally initiate contact like this. Sure she'd grab his hand but that could be taken a multitude of different ways. This full body contact was lingering, purposeful, not just done out of a torrent of emotion.

This felt different to him.

However he felt clairvoyantly that now was not the time for pondering and wondering on the small human.

She was rarely this at peace and intuition told him to just enjoy it, so he did as they sat on the top of her hill watching the sunset.

After all there was no predetermined amount of time promised to his little mortal.

* * *

He looked at the high sun and beamed at it.

"That is definitely one of the happiest days of my life," he said to the stone smiling at it.

_She had seemed so carefree that day._ He thought silently to himself. _Like she wasn't plague with a hundred worries and afflictions. _

He knew that was his real miko, the one he got to enjoy that day.

* * *

A/N: There's a nice little break for all of you from the angst. I felt it was well deserved.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: I give no exscuse for procrastination. I just do it. This chapter is rather short I feel. But it is also 6:16 in the morning. So forgive it if it's lacking.

**Remnants of a Fairytale**

**MirokuisMine**

* * *

Sesshomaru padded lightly down the hallways of his castle. He had a rather cheery disposition today that was inexplicable. Maybe it was the way the sunlight had fallen into his room.

Yes that was definitely it.

Certainly it was not the fact that a little miko found her way into his bed in the early hours of the morning.

Or how she slipped silently under the white silk sheets with him, and buried her face in the crook of his shoulder. Or how she exhaled so sweetly as she closed her eyes and dozed off with one of her arms thrown over his chest. Nor was it the fact that he also wrapped an arm around her and nuzzled his face into her hair and then slept in past the sunrise, very uncommon for him.

Nor of course was it the fact when he woke up, he woke up to sleepy cerulean eyes staring up at him, "Good morning Sesshomaru," she smiled sheepishly.

"Good morning Kagome," he replied back. This had an unnerving feeling to it. A bit of trepidation.

_What could be considered over stepping boundaries in a situation like this? _

He slowly inhaled her, calming himself his heartbeat was racing in his chest.

She languidly stretched her body out raising her hands high above her head and letting one softly fall onto his chest.

He'd never had intimacy with a woman like this before. Sure he had his own courtesans but there was no just lying about in each other's arms. Before now he would have never thought he'd enjoy it.

"Hm," she let out a soft moan from her chest once again stretching her body out.

Her hand lazily trailed down his chest. He had a sharp intake of breath.

Something in his mind screamed to stop this.

"We begin training today." His voice came out coolly and evenly. He was rather proud of himself.

"Hm," she let out the sweet and seductive sound again, smiling into his shoulder.

"You should go get ready," his words came out harsher than he had meant. They had a negative underlying feeling to them.

Her eyes fluttered open and she withdrew herself rather fast.

"Of course," she jumped up in a nervous fashion and went bolting to the door.

Suddenly he ached for her warmth as she softly slid the shoji screen shut of his door.

_Damn it!_ His mind screamed. He could be tactless sometimes when it concerned her. He growled in his mind as he too rose from his bed, the reluctance of leaving left with her.

So this is what was playing through his mind right now, as he made his way down to the dojo.

Sesshomaru certainly prided himself on his clairvoyance, however when it pertained to one certain woman from the future, this prideful feeling diminished.

As he crossed the threshold into the massive expanse of room he saw her sitting in the middle, perhaps in meditation.

She donned the classical outfit of the miko. Her red hakama draped legs crossed, her white kimono clad chest rising and falling with her deep breathing.

He didn't really want to break her out of her trance.

Mostly he didn't want her eyes to fall on him after this morning's mishaps.

He couldn't handle her accusations.

However her head turned only slightly to look over her shoulder at him.

"Shall we begin," the monochromic tone was back as she spoke.

_Fuck._

"Yes," he tried to soften his words to her, but it was currently lost on her as she briskly stood and rounded to face him.

* * *

_What did you expect from the Prince of Ice? For me to melt easily?_

He was still a bit remorseful of his actions on that day.

_But god damn it if it didn't fuel you for the first day of your training. _

He remembered her beginning clumsiness with the sword but how determined she was and that alone made her fearsome with it.

Something about her spirit when provoked was terrifying, period.

* * *

She was running.

Clearly she was not happy about it.

He could tell by the way she got that angry look in her eyes when she was giving it her all, arms pumping at her sides, sweat running down her face, her breathing ragged, and here he was right beside her seemingly using no energy what so ever.

He had begun making her run a few miles a day.

"Your agility leaves for want," he had said to her.

"Oh does it then?" Not a second later she had taken off in a mad sprint, as if she'd prove a point.

Sesshomaru couldn't help but mentally roll his eyes.

_Why does she feel she must always prove herself to me?_

Of course this was always followed by the flood of memories were he had clearly labeled to her, her pathetic human inadequacies.

_Oh yes, that is right I suppose._

It was something he didn't particularly explaining himself on to her.

Making up for past transgressions and misunderstandings was utterly exhausting.

But this is how they ended up in this situation. She was angry at him, driving herself to the point of passing out to prove to him just how adequate she was.

Which of course he knew. But he was not about to explain to her the meticulous occurrences that lead to this discovery.

He fell behind her now to charge up the hill to the Japanese maple.

He had fallen back to grin.

She really was so amusing sometimes.

As she reached the top she made a dive for the shade under the tree. She was panting, spent from the physical work. He was certain her body already ached painfully from the past few weeks of training.

Not that she ever mentioned it to him.

He crested the hill and took his spot sitting beside her, one knee raised with his arm resting upon it.

Her face was in the grass as she struggled to regain her regular breathing pattern.

"You shouldn't push yourself to hard," there they were, accusatory eyes.

"YOU are the one who said I should be training harder if I expect to survive this fight!" He flinched slightly. It really was one of Sesshomaru's most prevailing concerns right now.

He didn't want it to come. He actually absolutely dreaded it.

She was so important. So precious. So fragile.

Chances of death are always high with those of the human race.

The demon Lord learned this first hand.

Sesshomaru however did not know how to articulate these thoughts without feeling silly.

"It'll do you know good to have endurance if you're dead before the dawn of the fight." It was a defensive stance.

She saw this. So she attacked his walls.

"Honestly, oh great immortal demon, why do you care? Why do you keep me trapped here like an animal? Why don't you let me face my death alone?" Cold words spoken with cold eyes.

His heart clenched and chest tightened as if he just had been dipped into a pool of ice.

_What does one say to that?_

He didn't know where to begin to reconcile the situation. He wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do to assail her worries on the standing of their relationship.

In the end, as all mortals, she would die.

In the end, as all demons, he would have eternity to live.

The area they were breaching was made up of vast gray spaces and it was quite dangerous.

This powerful demon did not know if his heart could take it.

He was not even sure he was willing to take it, if he wanted it.

Sesshomaru had recently deduced all this feeling was not good for the soul and he should be done with it.

Sesshomaru's resolve held finality. It was official.

So why was he still in an emotional turmoil? It all made no sense to him.

No one, especially hundreds of year's old wise demons, liked to be confused.

"I don't know," It there was no denying it was not the best conveyance to give her but undoubtedly there were also better.

Kagome's eyes flashed from her rage to defeat.

"I just," her voice was shaky, "I just don't understand how you can be so detached. I don't understand how you could not know that." She paused momentarily. "Perhaps we are far more different than I had thought lately."

This was not how he had wanted this to go.

His own rage was building. Rage at how she could be so brilliant and so clueless all at the same time.

Sesshomaru grew to his full height.

"No Kagome, I think perhaps pertaining to this situation you are in fact the one who does not understand." He didn't know what to do.

He wanted to flee but he cast this idea away. _Demon Lord's do not flee, not even from tragically beautiful priestesses who they are harboring strange emotions for. _

He just didn't know what to do to not worsen their current situation.

These emotionally thick situations were the indefinite was palpable in the air.

Kagome's eyes had the most defeated look he had ever seen them harbor.

"You know," She bowed her head so her bangs would hide her eyes, "Maybe your right. Maybe all the understanding I think I have come to gain is really a sham. Nothing more than a finishing sheen on enlightenment. I haven't even made it past the surface."

God as his witness, he wanted to bang his head against something.

This conversation was looping around and loosing all its point.

In his heart sense and compassion were vying for dominance.

The battle within the Shikon no Tama, had nothing on Lord Sesshomaru's heart.

His mouth tightened. He wanted to encompass her with himself. He wanted to drag her inside of him and make her understand everything.

For some reason he was certain if she could feel what was inside of him right now, she'd know exactly how to break it down into laymen terms for him.

"Kagome," he started slowly. Keeping his calm when all he wanted to do was scream at her. But previous experiences proved this made her withdraw from him. She was like a flower she needed just the right conditions to open up. "I cannot explain myself to you," he paused for thought, "Not because that I don't want to, simply for the fact that I do not have the words with which to precisely do it. I refuse for anything that is going on inside of me right now, to be lost in translation to you."

She looked up at him.

"However for your questions, I keep you locked up because I want to shelter you. I will not allow you to set out alone because I want nothing more than for you to never have to suffer again, I will do everything in my power to assure that fact. For as to why I care, this is the area I cannot articulate to you." He slowly exhaled and closed his eyes, "All I can say to you is, I never want to awake one morning and not hear the reassuring beating of your heart in your chest."

His world stopped. Everything was frozen. The only person who able to set it all in motion again was Kagome, and he would wait eternity for her to do so.

Kagome sat up, her eyes searing into him. He could not understand what emotion they currently held, it was one of the ones lost on him. His heart ached as she slowly moved.

She put one leg below her. _Why is she moving so damn slow? _The other came to rest under her.

He silently reminded himself to breath.

She began to unfold herself so that she was standing erect.

Her gaze was beginning to make him itch to turn and run.

She took one meaningful step towards him.

Once again he had to remind himself Demon Lord's flee from nothing.

Her other foot came in front of the first so that she was almost too where he now stood.

_Demon Lord's flee from nothing. Demon Lord's flee from nothing. Demon Lord's flee from nothing. Demon Lord's flee from nothing. Demon Lord's flee from nothing. _It had become his mantra and he was chanting it in his head.

She stood directly before him now. He vaguely realized she was smiling, but all he really saw was those eyes. He begged the world to be quiet so that he could hear, truly hear the next words she uttered to him.

"Sesshomaru," it was a breathy sound that floated lightly on the wind.

Quickly he decided it was the only way he ever wanted her to say his name again. The coils on his hearts were slightly relenting their pressure.

Her frail little hands reached out to him in all their dainty glory, as they reached up to intertwine with his hair that lie behind his neck.

There was more slack on his heart.

She pulled herself flush up against his body.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, mattered more right now in the entire universe in Sesshomaru's mind than what the petite girl was doing.

She pulled his head down towards hers as she slowly rose to her tip toes.

These seconds were passing like hours for Sesshomaru. He was forever entombing each movement, each crease in fabric of her furisube, every hue of color in her hair as the sunlight hit it, every time she inhaled, and the way her eyes were shining into his mind forever. No detail would go without forever being ingrained in his memory of this moment.

"Sesshomaru," she said it again, in that same voice he loved to hear, as her head reached up to him.

Her eyes fell shut, as did his instinctively.

Her lips beckoned to him, as if they would allow him access to her every thought. He felt that they were the fruit of knowledge and to partake of them he would understand everything. Everything about her.

Their lips made contact. It was enough to make him want to sigh. Great, fearsome, Demon Lord of the Moonlit lands, sigh.

Imagine that.

The chains surrounding his heart fell away.

Just like that.


End file.
